


Ave Maria

by PaxieAmor



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 02:25:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3633234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxieAmor/pseuds/PaxieAmor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria Stark loved her husband, but decided that she loved herself, and her son, so much more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ave Maria

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [this tumblr post](http://igavethatbitchalink.tumblr.com/post/113211279014/an-au-where-maria-stark-is-a-rich-single-mom-who).

Howard Stark came home from the war a different man than when he’d left. He seemed the same on the outside; the same flirtatious genius that had stolen Maria Collins Carbonell’s heart when they both were in college. But now, Maria Stark could see that underneath the façade was… she wasn’t sure what to call it. A darkness, perhaps. A strange shadow that had shrouded the man she loved, and she couldn’t break through it no matter how hard she tried.

Howard buried himself in his work, barely acknowledging her presence unless he was drunk and wanted sex. She knew of his infidelity, and she thought it was a testament of her love for him that she looked the other way, because he always came back to her eventually… but it wasn’t her Howard in bed with her. It was some other being with Howard’s smile, saying he loved her. That was the Howard that would be hungover and annoyed with her the next morning, yelling at her to leave him alone when he was trying to work.

That was the Howard that backhanded her; the Howard that didn’t apologize for the black eye or the other bruises that followed. That was the Howard she lived with now, and no matter how sincerely he’d say it, she didn’t believe he loved her anymore.

It wasn’t until late 1969, when she became pregnant, that Maria finally decided to leave. She couldn’t imagine raising a child in this home, with a man that she barely knew anymore, a man that was hurting her. She used to love wearing shorter sleeved shirts, but couldn’t anymore with the bruises on her arms. He didn’t hit her face as much anymore; she supposed that he wanted to keep her face pretty. What would happen to a child in this kind of a life? Maria wasn’t about to find out.

Her plans took a few months to complete, but most of the things she needed were easily taken care of. Maria had always had a good head for business and had investments of her own that she’d started before the way, and she had been saving most of the profits; she wouldn’t be as rich as she’d been with Howard, but she and her child would be fine. The first thing she did was buy a house. It was nowhere near as fancy as the mansion she currently lived in, but she loved it; a cozy three bedroom, two bathroom townhouse in Manhattan with a lovely kitchen, decent sized dining room/living room and one car garage. There were also servant’s quarters in the basement that Maria wasn’t sure what she was going to do with. It could be a potential income property when her baby was a little older, but she had time to think about it.

When Howard was away on one of his ‘business trips’, Maria packed some clothes and sentimental items, and prepared to leave. Her house was ready for her to move into, fully furnished with the things she had bought. The nursery was the only room left unfinished; she wanted to do that room herself.

Nothing surprised Maria more than when she came downstairs with her bags and found Howard’s butler, Edwin Jarvis, waiting by the front door.

“Ready to go, Mrs. Stark?” he asked cheerfully. “The car is waiting to take you to your new home. May I take your bags?” She couldn’t help the surprised, but fond smile the crept across her face.

“How did you know, Jarvis?”

“Madam, I get the mail every day and I made sure to keep what was yours out of Mr. Stark’s hands.”

“Of course… thank you, Jarvis. I will miss you.”

“Miss me, Madam?” He shook his head. “Madam, if you haven’t made fresh arrangements, Anna and I would be honored to continue working for you.” He smiled a bit sheepishly. “We… might already be packed.”

Maria put her bags down and hugged Jarvis tight. It was the only way to keep him from seeing the tears in her eyes.

“Please,” she said softly. “Call me Maria.”

Howard would return home to find his butler and cook (and his wife, of course) missing, and divorce papers waiting on his desk. Maria hadn’t been sure of his reaction; part of her feared that he would show up at her new home and cause a scene, while another part sort of hoped he would come to apologize, promise to get better. What she got was a call from his lawyer, asking her about alimony and child support.

She didn’t take his money; she had her own.

With the help of the Jarvis’s, Maria painted the nursery a light green and assembled the furniture; a white crib and white dresser/changing table. She wouldn’t do much decorating until the baby was born, but it could easily be customized for a boy or girl. In addition to being a wonderful cook, Anna was a skilled knitter who was more than happy to take time to teach Maria the craft. Her first blanket wasn’t state fair worthy, but it would keep her little one warm during cold New York winters.

“Thank you, Anna,” she said once the blanket was finished. “I never would have been able to do it without you.”

“You’re welcome, Ms. Stark,” Anna said happily. “If there’s anything else you want to try, just let me know.” Maria thought about it a moment.

“Actually, Anna… I would very much love to learn to cook something besides grilled cheese.”

Dinner that night was spaghetti and meatballs and Jarvis had never seen Maria more proud of something she’d done.

Anthony Edward “Tony” Stark was born on May 29th, 1970. It was a beautiful day in New York City; it was in the 70s, the sun was shining and Maria felt it was the perfect way to welcome the light of her life. She’d asked Jarvis—who did stop calling her Madam, but wouldn’t call her anything but Ms. Stark—to call Howard, let him know that she was going into labor. She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t come to see them, but was pleased to see he’d sent a teddy bear for Tony and roses for her.

As he got older, it became clear that Tony was as smart as Howard and that made Maria proud. He built a circuit out of odds and ends when he was four; for his fifth birthday, Maria turned the spare bedroom into a small workshop for him. When he accidentally set fire to the curtains a few weeks later, she asked Jarvis to look into some fireproofing measures and taught Tony how to use a fire extinguisher. By the time he was ten, they moved to a bigger house just outside the city, and she surprised him with a larger, safer workshop.

Maria didn’t see Howard much after Tony was born, not that she expected to. She read about him in the paper from time to time, either about things his company was doing or about his ‘private’ life. She kept a photo from their wedding in Tony’s room for him to see. As he got older, he asked about his father and… well, she didn’t lie. She just didn’t tell him everything.

“Your father and I grew apart, Tony,” she would say. “He and I didn’t want the same things anymore.”

“Why doesn’t he come see me?” Tony would ask, and that would break her heart because she didn’t know the real answer. Howard lived in California now, but there was no reason for him to not have asked to see Tony before then. Maria never told him to stay away from her or Tony; he made that decision on his own.

“He’s a busy man, sweetheart,” she replied, taking him in her arms and hugging him close. “And busy men don’t always remember things they should.”

“I don’t want to be a busy man, Ma.” Tony hugged her tight and snuggled against her. “I never want to be too busy to spend time with you.”

“Thank you, Tony.”

“I love you, Ma.”

“I love you too.”

Every day, Maria thanked the heavens that Anna and Edwin came with her. While her investments made for a comfortable living, Maria couldn’t be just a stay at home mother and found herself doing charity work. She founded her own organization, the Maria Stark Foundation, in the early 80s that specialized in helping women in rough situations. While Tony was always her first priority, there were times when she was needed to do something for MSF and ended up canceling something with Tony. It didn’t happen often; if she could find a way around it, she would, but there were some times when it couldn’t be helped. Tony, the sweet soul, was so understanding and would always say they could go some other time.

It was those times when Jarvis would step up, and take Tony in Maria’s place. He would never be Tony’s father, but it was Jarvis who taught Tony to play catch in their back yard, and took him to baseball games when Maria couldn’t go. Anna adored Tony and taught him to bake as she’d done with Maria while she was pregnant. She still remembers the look of pride on Tony’s face one Mother’s Day when he brought her breakfast in bed; blueberry muffins he’d made himself (with a little help from Anna).

Her brilliant little man was in college at sixteen. She worried about him at first, with his headstrong ‘try me fucker’ attitude, getting into trouble with students older than him, but she never got a call asking for bail money, so he was either behaving himself or was smart enough not to get caught. It could go either way with him, really.

His first winter break, Tony brought home his new best friend, a young man named James “Call me Rhodey, Ms. Stark” Rhodes. Maria liked the young man instantly and felt that he would be a good anchor for her son who always had his head in the clouds. She was relieved when he didn’t follow Rhodey into the military, pleased when he said he wanted to send care packages to Rhodey and his fellow soldiers, and beaming with pride when he asked if MSF could do anything for widows of soldiers.

Her son was growing into a wonderful man.

In 1991, Howard was killed in a car accident and Maria felt her heartbreak all over again. Tony came home from MIT, where he was working on his Master’s degree, to be with her. He brought roses and chocolate and held her close while she cried.

“You still loved him, didn’t you Ma?” he asked when her sobs had died down.

“Yes, Tony,” she replied. “I still loved him very much…”

“Even though he hit you?”

“How did you know about that?” Tony just shrugged. She sighed. “Yes, darling, even then… I wish you could have known him, before the war, when he was still that man I fell in love with.”

“Yeah… me too, Ma.” She looked up at him just in time to see a tear roll down his cheek. He saw her looking and smiled. “He must’ve been pretty great if you fell for him.”

“Oh Tony…” She hugged him tight. She didn’t know what else to say.

“Are you going to the funeral, Ma?” he asked a few minutes later.

“Yes, I think so… would you come with me?” She felt his lips press against her temple.

“Of course, Ma.”

The funeral was just as big and flashy as Maria assumed it would be, despite the fact there weren’t scantily clad cheerleaders acting as pallbearers. Seeing Howard in his casket was the first time she’d seen him since the divorce. He had aged well, she thought. He looked peaceful; that was all she could ask for.

Howard’s business partner, Obadiah Stane came over and offered his condolences to her and Tony. She didn’t know much about Stane, other than she disliked him on sight. He seemed to be fishing for information, and she was glad when Tony politely dismissed him and walked away with her. A few minutes later, when they were approached by Howard’s lawyer, Maria learned how right she was; Howard had left his share of the company to Tony and Maria. Both Tony and Stane owned forty nine percent of the company, while Maria had the remaining two percent. She knew that Howard had done that on purpose, but was unsure why.

At least not until 2008. Tony and Stane had been running the company together in California; Stane wanted to focus more on weapons for the military, while Tony wanted to make things that helped people, not kill them. Tony went to Afghanistan for a weapons demonstration because he wanted to see Rhodey; when he ended up missing, Maria knew in her heart that Stane was involved.

Three months into Tony’s disappearance, Jarvis told Maria that there was an Agent Coulson to see her. She met him in the living room and offered him tea and scones, genuinely surprised when he accepted.

“What organization did you say you were with?” she asked as she poured him a cup of tea. “Do you take sugar, cream?”

“Just sugar, please,” he replied. “I’m with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, Ms. Stark.” She blinked a few times before handing him the cup.

“That’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Ma’am. We’re working on it.” She nodded, glad that this agency apparently had someone dedicated to shortening their name; good way to create jobs.

“Is this about my Tony, Agent Coulson?”

“Yes, Ms. Stark; I’m sorry to say we haven’t located him yet, but we believe he’s still alive.”

“You wouldn’t come here just to tell me that.” The agent sipped his tea, but Maria could see a smile curl his lips.

“We believe that Mr. Stark is being held by a terrorist organization, and that your business partner has something to do with it.”

“That rat fucking bastard.” She nibbled her scone angrily. “Never liked him from the day I met him. Bet he’s responsible for Howard’s ‘accident’ too…”

“We’re looking into that, Ms. Stark,” Agent Coulson assured her. “Right now, our main priority is keeping you safe until Mr. Stark returns.” She nodded. With Tony missing, she controlled the majority of the company and if Stane was behind Tony’s disappearance, he might not hesitate to have her done away with.

“What did you have in mind, Agent Coulson?”

The agent that stayed with her was named Clint Barton; he was there under the guise of handyman doing some repairs on the old house, and he was a sweetheart. He actually did some repairs that she’d been putting off and was pleasant to talk to. He kept her updated on the search for Tony, occasionally watched reruns of “Murder, She Wrote” with her, and didn’t try to hide that he was trying to get information on Tony for future purposes.

“Ma’am,” he said in a polite, straightforward manner, “your son is a genius and a complete enigma, and we need all the help we can get.” She agreed and gave him something to work with because he was upfront with her.

Also, he was hot and kept walking around shirtless. She was old, not dead.

Tony showed up on her doorstep six months after he disappeared with a bouquet of roses and that smug grin that always reminded her of Howard. He hugged her tight as she cried into his shoulder.

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” she whispered. “Don’t you ever leave me like that again.”

“I won’t, Ma. I won’t.”

He showed her the arc reactor and she cried more, thinking of how it must have hurt him to have that done.

“It’s okay, Ma,” he replied. When she looked up from the reactor, she saw that grin on his face. “I’ve got plans for this. Big plans.”

A few weeks later, she watched with a smile as he told the world “I am Iron Man”.

“That’s my boy.”

**Author's Note:**

> The inspiration for Maria Stark townhouse layout can be found [here](http://regenthomestn.com/images/uploaded/814229481853544_screen_shot_2013-09-26_at_9.58.35_am.png).
> 
> The website where I found out what the weather was like on May 29th, 1970 is [here](http://mrcc.isws.illinois.edu/CLIMATE/birthday/newbirthday2.jsp).
> 
> The date of Tony's birthday was found via Google.


End file.
